4/5
This is it, chief.
This game hits different. It seems to derive spiritually so much from the JRPG classics of old in both its strengths and its weaknesses, but the game is so much more than the sum of its pros and cons.
Let's start with the gameplay. It is fantastic, simply put. It's classic. Turn based RPG with no active time battle system at all. You have abilities, spells and pep-powers which you can activate - simple. I played the game with stronger monsters on and no exp from weaker monsters and it was deliciously challenging. The kind of challenging where you don't (necessarily) have to go grind if you're hitting a wall - you just have to think differently. Are there any debuffs I can use on this baddie? How can I buff my guys to survive his attacks? What accessories can I use to negate his debuffs? It asks you to prepare for each boss fight differently in order to defeat them. Without stronger monsters I have heard the game is a bit of a cakewalk, but with it - it definitely hits a difficulty sweetspot.
Character building is also super satisfying. The skill grids are very simple but they do their job well - it's like a more granular job system. You can pick what you want your characters to be good at and spec them accordingly, there is a great weighing up of decisions here as well because in the early-game, you can't be good at everything. The exploration through the landscapes is also fun - lots of useful goodies to find. I love it when games reward exploring with things that make your characters stronger - in this case better equipment often. So simple, yet so rare. The way the crafting system works here is engaging, and you are constantly on the lookout for recipes and materials. I will say the minigame for crafting can be frustrating, until the late-game it is RNG dependant and can eat your time in a unsatisfying way.
Now let's talk about the story. It's serviceable in its construction. It's not very complicated, but surprisingly it is pretty engaging considering how run of the mill it is. It doesn't ever become stupendously predictable which keeps things interesting. At times, it hits on its emotional notes very effectively also (particularly in the little side-stories of each town) - often bluntly and never with precision - but effectively nonetheless. I think the best part of the story is how the main story ends at the end of Act 2, and seemingly out of nowhere comes an Act 3 with a curveball time-travelling adventure. This "post-game" is fantastic. Lots of bosses, more side-stories and retellings of old stories to explore, and heaps of fun-to-get loot. I will say I do have one regret, which is that I turned off stronger monsters for the final boss of Act 2 due to not wanting to grind - and therefore had to play the rest of the game with it off - I sincerely missed that sweetspot of difficulty it provided.
The presentation is rock solid. There is a downgrade in graphics for the definitive version which I played but I think it looked fine for a JRPG and with this aesthetic style. Some of the landscapes you explore look great as well, but a lot of that work is done in the design, the actual texturing and rendering is nothing special. The animation work is wonderful and lends so much character not only to the main cast, but the monsters - they never cease to delight. The UI and UX in the definitive version were also great, lots of QOL changes and tweaks that made the experience seamless - in particular ultra fast battle mode. The music sounded great and really carried that adventure spirit that a JRPG like this needs.
DQXI also carries with it a lot of the faults of the old JRPGs. It is long - too long. Act 3 itself dragged on for about thirty more hours in my case - bringing my total to 89 hours. I couldn't bring myself to forge the final evolution weapons and get all of Drustan's wishes, mainly because I had spent my fill of time with this game. The idea of going through the same trials again was just abominable. Getting everyone's final outfits was very satisfying however. This game doesn't respect the player's time in a way that most modern games do. You have to do a lot of backtracking for quests, the pacing of the story beats is glacial for large parts of the game, and even cutscenes seem to drag at times. I think a big part of overcoming this is meeting the game at it's level. I found playing an hour or two every other day over a few months to be much more palatable than trying to storm through the whole thing in a couple of weeks. Nevertheless, I think the entire experience including Act 3 could be edited down to about 60 hours easily.
Like I said at the beginning though, this game supercedes the sum of its parts. It's an experience I havent had anything like in a very long time - one that gives you old-school adventure vibes, an addiction to progressing your characters and watching your power grow, and a heap of strategy to employ in battles. It easily overcomes it's flaws for a high score.
EDIT:
Few extra thoughts I've had since beating the game that I wanted to put down here.
I stand by my praise of the music in its ability to generate an atmopshere of adventure. One problem however, there isn't enough variety in the music you encounter - especially considering the plethora of environments and locations you travel across. The same themes would be repeated across different areas which led to two big issues. One is you lose that effect of each location being partly characterised by its soundtrack. Xenoblade Chronicles did this very well. Each location loses a bit of character as a result. The other is that the field and city music really starts to grate on you over time, there simply isn't enough variety in it.
The other thing is the existence of the Draconian Quest options, which I briefly touched on. I'm not sure if it's a new addition to DQ, but it's great. It allows you to tune the difficulty of the game perfectly to tailor your own experience. I especially like that you can turn them off at any time at a Church, and that once they're deactivated you can't reactivate them on that playthrough. It makes the decision to turn them off a weighty one, and may give players pause to think about alternate strategies instead. Admittedly, I turned mine off and later regretted it.
